Air safety audits conducted by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) reveal serious failures in the aviation sector raising concerns about passenger safety on India's major airlines.

A new audit has uncovered planes with screws missing, a flight that took off without the essential explosive certification for refueling and routine inspections that were not carried out because of lack of trained manpower.

In response to an RTI filed by Mail Today, the DGCA conceded that there were safety gaps in air operations.

India's aviation sector is suffering from serious gaps in safety procedure and a shortage in qualified staff to ensure standards in services

Sources said most safety inspections found improper documentation of air operations and engineering checks done on the ground, indicating your safety on flight may have been compromised.

In fact, DGCA itself is so short-staffed that it cannot complete safety inspections of all the airline operators in one year according regulation requirements.

As a result, it outsources the primary obligation of conducting the safety audits to airline companies most of the time.

This undermines the system of impartial safety inspection, said former DGCA Kanu Gohain.

"How much sincerity can you expect after delegating the safety audit responsibilities to the airlines themselves?'' Gohain asked.

Last year, the aviation regulator could only complete safety inspections of six out of 10 scheduled airline operators.

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"The last air safety audit done by DGCA was of SpiceJet in October 2012 and there were total 38 findings listed to the operator," says DGCA in an RTI reply.

The audit was particular about gaps in documentation of flight operations and engineering tests.

Slip-ups on flight safety are not the only hazard that the Indian flyers face. There have been frequent tripping of radars at the air traffic control (ATC) rooms.

Five such incidents have been reported since January this year - two each in Delhi and Kolkata and one in Bhubaneswar.

A fortnight ago, on March 12, the Chennai airport was closed for operations from 2.30 am to 7 am following a fire in the equipment room and control centre of the local ATC.

This highlighted the absence of routine maintenance at critical facilities. Faced with the frequency of such incidents, DGCA is proposing random fire safety drills at major airports across the country and have sought detailed reports on ATC failures from the Airports Authority of India (AAI).

DGCA Arun Mishra played down safety fears saying: "There are layers of safety personnel involved in the aviation sector and human errors can happen anywhere.

"It happened in France recently where a spanner was found in the cabin of a flight.''

However Mishra conceded that while there was an expansion in the aviation sector, there was no commensurate improvement in expertise on the ground.

"We were not geared up to match the demands and are trying to catch up. This is a highly technical profession requiring experts but their salaries cannot be matched within the government set-up. Hence, we find it difficult to get the manpower.''

Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata manage over 70 per cent of the daily air traffic. Some like Mumbai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, and a few in the north-east sector, are designated as prone to safety hazards, admits a senior DGCA official.

There are over 4,000 commercial pilots operating 1,000-odd planes in 10 scheduled operators. The RTI showed on the basis of three-year findings that 83 pilots had tested positive for alcohol and there were 72 near air-misses over the same period.

Eleven accidents, including five fatal ones, were also reported last year. According to the RTI reply given by the DGCA the pilots found drunk were suspended for three months.

Giving details about the 72 air misses, the DGCA said that there were "22 air misses in 2010, 29 in 2011 and 18 reported last year".

Three have been reported to date this year. DGCA Mishra said that he is taking stringent action against the errant operators and has passed "zero-tolerance'' directives against drunk pilots.

Highlighting the urgency to ensure air safety, Kapil Kaul of the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) said: "The aviation sector is in urgent need of an overhaul as we have been seriously short of key resources since 2009.

"The safety oversight remains a challenge due to the shortage of trained manpower in DGCA."

The DGCA itself is short of at least 400 trained personnel to carry out routine operations, including air safety audits and inspections of the airports.

"The posts were sanctioned in 2009, but the process is yet to begin and even if it starts now, it will take at least 2-3 years to complete,'' said Gohain.

He added: "Maybe by that time there will be other demands confronting the aviation sector.''

Former Air India executive director Jitendra Bhargava endorses Kaul.

"Even if safety levels fall by one per cent, it is not fair. Safety needs investment and training of personnel needs time," said Bhargava.